DANCING SONDHEIM Screening Set for Tonight at Lincoln Center

By: Jan. 31, 2015
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Two short films from DANCING SONDHEIM -- a free App compiling 7 short dance movies by Richard Daniels using the music of Stephen Sondheim -- will be screened tonight, January 31 at 6 p.m. as part of Lincoln Center's annual DANCE ON CAMERA film festival.

Released last fall as the latest installment of choreographer Richard Daniels's popular DANCES FOR AN iPHONE series, DANCING SONDHEIM is available as a free app in versions for iPHONE, iPAD, iTUNES and ANDROID. For more informaiton, about the app, visit www.dancesforaniphone.com.

The pair of dances from DANCING SONDHEIM that will be featured at this year's 43rd DANCE ON CAMERA festival are:

"Children and Art" from Stephen Sondheim's musical SUNDAY IN THE PART WITH GEORGE, performed by the legendary dancer Carmen de Lavallade, to a recording of the song by Maria Friedman with Mr. Sondheim on piano. Choreographed by Richard Daniels. This is a re-release of a movie that first appeared on Daniels' Volume 1 of DANCES FOR AN iPHONE, and has been reedited. It serves as the nascent inspiration for the latest volume of DFAiP.

"Everyday a Little Death" from Sondheim's musical A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC will be performed and spoken by dancer Deborah Jowitt, using only the lyris to the song (no musical accompaniment). Choreographed by Richard Daniels.

DANCING SONDHEIM is the 4th installment from DANCES FOR AN iPHONE, which uses technology as a medium to transmit modern dance to the general public. To date, the free apps have been downloaded 15,000 times in over 100 countries. DANCING SONDHEIM is also the first Dances for an iPhone App to also be available for Android devices -- tablets and phones, also free, at the Google Play Store (released Fall 2014).

The 43rd Dance on Camera Festival is produced by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Dance Films Association. The Festival runs from January 30-February 3, 2015. For more about the Festival, go to www.filmlinc.com/press/entry/fslc-and-dance-films-association-announce-the-43rd-edition-of-dance-on-came.

This will be Dances for an iPhone's second appearance in the Dance on Camera Festival. In 2012, the Festival hosted a panel consisting of Norton Owen as moderator, with Richard Daniels, Christine Wright, Risa Steinberg, Molissa Fenley, Barbara Mahler and David Leventhal as panelists, discussing the releases of Volume 2 and A Scriabin Suite -- Volume 3. This coming appearance will be the first time any of the Dances for an iPhone movies have been screened in their entirety on a big screen in a festival format.

Other film festivals to which DANCING SONDHEIM has been accepted include: Viewster Online Film Festival - Play it Forward (Zurich, Switzerland) (December 2014; ACE Long Film Festival (Bangalore, India); and the Best Shorts Competition (La Jolla, CA, US).

The other dancers appearing other the remaining 5 DANCING SONDHEIM movies include Janis Brenner, Robert La Fosse, Brian McGinnis, Rebecca Rigert, Risa Steinberg, Jodie Toogood, Melissa Toogood and Megan Williams.

In its feature coverage of DANCES FOR AN iPHONE on the occasion of its debut in 2011, The New York Times wrote, "It is like holding a dance in the palm of your hand." The Washington Post wrote in 2013 called the app "a respite in the palm of your hand."

Richard Daniels's DANCES FOR AN iPHONE Volume 1 debuted in 2010, with 6 dance movies created and choreographed by Richard Daniels. Created as an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2009, these movies used an eclectic selection of music by Stephen Sondheim, Gerald Busby, Erwin Schulhoff, Amy Beach, Bill Conti, and text by Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas. Volume 2 (released in 2011, with 6 dance movies created and choreographed by Richard Daniels) uses an eclectic mix of music (Busby, Handel, Arvo Part Henry Purcell, and Alexander Scriabin, with text by Richard Daniels). A Scriabin Suite -- Volume 3 (2012) from Dances for an iPhone -- uses music by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin as the score for 7 short dance movies.

A formally-trained dancer, Richard Daniels worked as an arts manager, consultant and producer in the 1980's with dance and theater companies across the U.S. The experience of living with HIV led to a rebirth and propelled him to reconnect with dance as an instrument of healing. After 15 years offstage, he resumed dance studies and since his debut in the 1995 Day Without Art Remember Project, he has since performed in numerous venues in the U.S. and Canada. His work has received support from the Bossak/Helibron Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation and the Jerome Robbins Foundation. DANCES FOR AN iPHONE has been celebrated at the Lincoln Center Dance on Camera Festival, the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Gibney Dance Center, Movement Talks at 92nd St. Y and Baryshnikov Arts Center.

About the Dancers:

--Carmen de Lavallade - original Broadway production HOUSE OF FLOWERS with a 60-year career dating back to her early collaborations with Alvin Ailey

--Deborah Jowitt - dancer wrote about dance for 40 years for Village Voice

DANCES FOR AN iPHONE has been made possible in part through The Field's Sponsored Artist Program. App developer is Mallow Technologies; web master is Mainstreet Hosts.

The selections of DANCING SONDHEIM were filmed at Gibney Dance Center and Joyce Soho in NYC.

For more information about DANCING SONDHEIM, visit DancesforaniPhone.com, and also at Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Tickets to screenings of DANCE ON CAMERA are $13. For more information visit www.filmlinc.com.



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